Ling Xiaoxiao hated the feeling of being enveloped by water. It made her inexplicably anxious.
In last night’s nightmare, she had watched helplessly as Xue Ji was swallowed by the sea, powerless to do anything about it.
But now, Xue Ji’s figure moved before her like an agile fish.
Ling Xiaoxiao swam toward her, about to embrace her, but unexpectedly grabbed nothing but water.
Just as Ling Xiaoxiao’s arms were about to close around her waist, Xue Ji gently pushed against Ling Xiaoxiao’s side with her foot and slipped away.
Refusing to accept defeat, Ling Xiaoxiao lunged at Xue Ji again. This time, Shaya and Lilith joined in, surrounding Xue Ji from three sides.
Like killer whales hunting their prey, the three of them swam toward Xue Ji one after another.
“Why are you two after me too?” Xue Ji’s voice appeared directly in their minds.
“She can chase you, but I can’t?” Lilith shot back.
“Glub glub glub…” Shaya couldn’t use telepathy, so she instinctively opened her mouth to speak. The moment she did, her breathing tube slipped free. “Ugh! Glub glub…”
Panic struck Shaya. Her body went rigid, and her limbs began flailing chaotically. She was actually drowning.
Xue Ji reacted quickly. She was at Shaya’s side the moment she started struggling.
With a snap of her fingers, a large bubble enveloped Shaya’s head.
Shaya coughed out a few mouthfuls of seawater, her face twisted in disgust. The salt water had really stung her throat.
“I’m saved… Haah, haah.”
When she finally recovered from her panic, she realized she was clinging to Xue Ji like a koala.
The sensation of skin-to-skin contact in the water was strange—her body felt incredibly light. Because they were both in swimsuits, Shaya could feel the bare skin on Xue Ji’s arms and back. For a moment, she didn’t want to let go.
“Someone’s getting a little handsy. I won’t say who,” Lilith’s teasing voice echoed in Shaya’s mind.
Ling Xiaoxiao was even more direct. She swam over and literally peeled Shaya off.
“That’s enough. You’re a spirit beast and you still managed to drown—that’s talent, all right.”
“Wahhh, let me hold on a little longer… Just give me a moment to catch my breath!” Shaya said guiltily. “Besides, I’m a land-dwelling spirit beast. Is it really that strange that I can’t swim?”
“I think you’re faking the drowning to get some hands-on time.”
“What?!”
Shaya was about to argue back, but Lilith’s voice cut her off.
“Will you two stop bickering? Big Sister already swam off.”
——–
In the shallow diving area of the island, the girls’ chase continued.
The more Ling Xiaoxiao swam, the stranger she felt. Xue Ji’s current physical abilities weren’t exceptional, and Ling Xiaoxiao herself was indeed out of her element in the water. Yet there was no way Xue Ji should be able to evade all three of them so easily.
Throughout the chase, Ling Xiaoxiao sensed some kind of mysterious power aiding Xue Ji.
It felt as if the seawater itself was actively propelling her forward. Whether changing direction or accelerating, she encountered absolutely no resistance.
Meanwhile, the three pursuing her all felt varying degrees of hindrance.
“Xiao Ji, just how many secrets are you hiding?”
Ling Xiaoxiao’s patience had run out. She no longer wanted to play this cat-and-mouse game.
She reached out and clenched her hand in the air, intending to pull Xue Ji directly into her arms.
But she failed.
The spiritual-energy hand had caught nothing but a decoy formed from seawater.
“What?”
Xue Ji appeared beside Ling Xiaoxiao, looking as if she had expected this all along. She glanced back with a smile and swam off again.
“Hmph. I underestimated you.” This time, Ling Xiaoxiao actually caught Xue Ji as she tried to flee.
“Why aren’t you running anymore?” Ling Xiaoxiao could tell that Xue Ji had let herself be caught on purpose.
“I saw you were getting anxious, so I let you win,” Xue Ji said, reaching out to pinch Ling Xiaoxiao’s cheek.
“Anxious? Me? No way!” Ling Xiaoxiao’s inexplicable agitation flared up again.
“Then why are you holding on so tight?” Xue Ji said, grasping Ling Xiaoxiao’s arms.
Only then did Ling Xiaoxiao realize how tightly she had been clinging—even more than Shaya had.
“Do you see that over there?” Xue Ji shot a tiny spark of starlight from her index finger, casting a soft glow over the dim seabed.
A vast expanse of coral lay quietly beneath the waves, like an underwater rainbow. The dazzling, colorful sight was breathtaking.
“Coral lives can be measured in millennia too.”
“I know.” Ling Xiaoxiao hugged Xue Ji from behind, and the two of them drifted along together.
“Maybe to you, their lives are just mindless repetition of existence. But memories do exist within these simple life forms.”
“Memories? What do you mean?”
Xue Ji didn’t answer. She simply pointed toward where the spark of light had landed.
Ling Xiaoxiao swam over and gently touched the glowing point.
Within that light and shadow, she caught a glimpse of a distant past—a thousand years ago, when she and her master had lived here together.
But now, that place was empty.
“What is this?”
“The simpler the life form, the easier it is to find the fragments of light and shadow buried by time.”
“Though the passage of time has transformed this place beyond recognition, those memories carrying intense emotions have attached themselves to the subconscious of these living beings, passing down to the very end of time.”
“It’s like… fossils of memory…” Ling Xiaoxiao gazed at that lost land within the memory, and her usually calm heart stirred once more.
“So this is where you used to live? That whole ‘we rented out the place’ thing was a lie—this island belongs to you, doesn’t it?” Xue Ji said, unsurprised.
“Yes, that’s exactly what you think.” Ling Xiaoxiao added, “I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
“Honestly, stop torturing yourself over things that are already in the past. I’m not holding a grudge over that.” Xue Ji really couldn’t stand seeing Ling Xiaoxiao so cautious and careful.
“I’m just afraid—afraid of hurting you again. Like what I did to my master. Even though I knew those things would hurt her.”
“I did take pleasure in hurting the people I loved. But that wasn’t right. I know that now.”
As Ling Xiaoxiao spoke, the memory fragments in the faint glow happened to capture the scene from a thousand years ago, when the two of them had run headlong toward destruction in this very place.
When her master’s soul departed, Ling Xiaoxiao hadn’t returned to normal—she had fallen even deeper into madness.
Because of the nourishment from the Questioning Dao Tree, her master’s body still retained the warmth of life.
And so, that twisted love persisted in this place of heartbreak for a long, long time—until a great rainstorm submerged it all.
“You’re afraid of reverting to that crazed state?”
“Rather than ‘reverting,’ I’m afraid I never really changed at all.”
With that, Ling Xiaoxiao’s hands, which had been wrapped around Xue Ji’s waist, quietly loosened.
“Idiot.”
Xue Ji caught Ling Xiaoxiao’s hands and placed them back around her waist.
“The very fact that you’re thinking this way means you’re no longer the person you used to be.”
“My Xiaoxiao is a gentle person. And I’m certainly not some perverted master who lets others push me around.”
“I can protect myself. And I can… protect you too.”
Ling Xiaoxiao’s heart had never pounded so fiercely.
Shaya, who had finally caught up, was about to say something when Lilith clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Mmmph! What are you doing?”
“Are you an idiot? Don’t disturb them right now, or Ling Xiaoxiao will get revenge on you like there’s no tomorrow.”
“Come on, it’s not that bad. She’s not that cruel,” Shaya said, though she instinctively lowered her voice anyway.
